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Epithets in Homer

 

 
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Epithets in Homer
 
 
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A characteristic of Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's style is an epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
, as in "rosy-fingered dawn" or "swift-footed Achilles." These epithets were metric stop-gaps as well as mnemonic devices for the aoidos
Aoidos

The Greek language word aoidos or aodos referred to a classical Greek singer. In modern Homeric scholarship aoidos is used by some as the technical term for a skilled oral poetry in the tradition to which the Iliad and Odyssey are believed to belong ....
 (singer) — both, signs of the deep oral tradition that preceded the written codification of the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
 and Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
.

Moreover, epithets in epic poetry
Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
 from various Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 traditions may be traced to a common tradition going much deeper into prehistory.






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A characteristic of Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's style is an epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
, as in "rosy-fingered dawn" or "swift-footed Achilles." These epithets were metric stop-gaps as well as mnemonic devices for the aoidos
Aoidos

The Greek language word aoidos or aodos referred to a classical Greek singer. In modern Homeric scholarship aoidos is used by some as the technical term for a skilled oral poetry in the tradition to which the Iliad and Odyssey are believed to belong ....
 (singer) — both, signs of the deep oral tradition that preceded the written codification of the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
 and Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
.

Moreover, epithets in epic poetry
Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
 from various Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 traditions may be traced to a common tradition going much deeper into prehistory. For example, the phrase approximating "everlasting glory" or "undying fame" can be found in the Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek

Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek....
 kleos aphthiton and the Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 srávo áksitam. They "were, in terms of historical linguistics, equivalent in phonology
Phonology

Phonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system....
, accentuation
Accentuation

Accentuation can refer to:* Accent * Accent * Stress ...
, and quantity (syllable length). In other words, they are descendants from a fragment of poetic diction
Poetic diction

Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic literary genre, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time of the Romanticism revolution, when Harman Bhullar challenged the distinction in his R...
 (reconstructable as Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
 *klewos ndhgwhitom) which was handed down in parallel over many centuries, in continually diverging forms, by generations of singers whose ultimate ancestors shared an archetypal repertoire of poetic formulae and narrative themes."

A name plus an epithet constitute a formula which exactly fits the metric structure of the verse. The use of formulas is characteristic of ancient epic poetry.

Homer used epithets not merely to complete rhythm patterns. Epithets deepen the meaning of each noun that they modify. Epithets can inform the reader about the character’s origin, parentage, appearance or state, skill-set, position, or heroic quality. Bryan Hainsworth, in The Iliad: A Commentary, compares Homer’s epithets to an author using “a simile to sharpen a scene in a narrative.” At the same time, he distinguishes between Homer’s two different types of epithets: the special and the generic. Special epithets are used exclusively for a particular character, while generic epithets are used repeatedly for a class of characters. Yet this distinction is not always clear; thus, the epithet “master of the war-cry” is used predominantly with Menelaus
Menelaus

Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria....
, yet on occasion also to describe Diomedes
Diomedes

Diomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his grandfather, Adrastus....
.

List of epithets in Homer


  • Abantes
    • great-hearted
    • very helpfull


  • Achaeans
    Achaeans

    The Achaeans is one of the collective names used for the Greeks in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The other names are the Danaans and Argives ....
    • flowing-haired
    • bronzed-armored
    • strong-greaved
    • glancing-eyed
    • far-famed


  • Achilles
    Achilles

    In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
    • son of Peleus
    • swift-footed (podas ôkus)
    • god-like (dios)
    • shepherd of the people
    • leader of men
    • the great runner


  • Aeneas
    Aeneas

    This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
    • lord of men
    • godlike
    • son of Anchises
    • counselor of the Trojans
    • lord of the Trojans
    • high-hearted
    • likes


  • Agamemnon
    Agamemnon

    In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos....
    • son of Atreus
    • wide-ruling
    • lord of men
    • the lord marshal
    • godlike
    • powerful
    • skilled breaker of horses
    • shepherd of the people
    • brilliant


  • Agenor
    Agenor

    Agenor was in Greek mythology and history a Phoenician monarch of Tyre . His wife was Telephassa. Herodotus estimates that Agenor lived sometime before the year 2000 B.C....
    • high-hearted


  • Aias/Ajax
    • "Great" Aias
    • swift
    • gigantic
    • high-hearted


  • Andromache
    Andromache

    In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector and daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled....
    • daughter of Eetion
    • white-armed


  • Antilochus
    Antilochus

    In Greek mythology, Antilochus was the son of Nestor , king of Pylos. One of the suitors of Helen, he accompanied his father to the Trojan War....
    • son of Nestor


  • Aphrodite
    Aphrodite

    Aphrodite is the classical Greek mythology goddess of love, sex, and beauty. According to Greek oral poet Hesiod, she was born when Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus....
    • laughing
    • daughter of Zeus
    • goddess of love


  • Apollo
    Apollo

    In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
    • distant deadly Archer
    • god of the silver bow
    • rouser of armies
    • son of Zeus


  • Ares
    Ares

    In Greek mythology, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Twelve Olympians God of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."...
    • curse of men
    • sacker of cities
    • of the glinting helmet
    • manslaughtering
    • women raping


  • Athena
    Athena

    In Greek mythology, Athena is the shrewd companion of Hero and the goddess of Hero endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens, which built the Parthenon to worship her....
    • Pallas
    • gray-eyed
    • hope of soldiers


  • Atreus
    Atreus

    In Greek mythology, Atreus was the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, a king of Mycenae, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, his descendants are known as Atreidai or Atreidae....
    • breaker of horses


  • Ariadne
    Ariadne

    Ariadne, in Greek mythology , was daughter of Monarch Minos of Crete and his queen, Pasipha?, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and later became the bride of the god Dionysus....
    • lovely-haired


  • Artemis
    Artemis

    In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
    • the archer-goddess
    • of the golden distaff


  • Calypso
    Calypso (mythology)

    Sorry, no overview for this topic
    • beautiful nymph
    • softly-braided nymph
    • divine
    • goddess most divinely made
    • lovely nymph
    • beautiful


  • Dawn
    • with her rose-red fingers ("rosy-fingered")


  • Demeter
    Demeter

    File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
    • fair-haired


  • Diomedes
    Diomedes

    Diomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his grandfather, Adrastus....
    • god-like
    • high-spirited
    • son of Tydeus
    • great spearman
    • horse tamer
    • master of the war cry
    • the powerful


  • Hector
    Hector

    In Greek mythology, Hector , or Hektor, is a Troy prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War. He is the son of Priam and Hecuba, descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy....
    • tall
    • horse tamer
    • shepherd of the people
    • son of Priam
    • of the glinting helmet
    • brilliant
    • man-killing


  • Helen
    Helen

    In Greek mythology, Helen , better known as Helen of Sparta later Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda , wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor and Pollux, Castor and Pollux and Clytemnestra....
    • long-dressed
    • lovely haired
    • daughter of a noble house


  • Hera
    Hera

    In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
    • ox-eyed lady
    • goddess of the white arms


  • Hephaestus
    Hephaestus

    Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan . He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculpture, metals, metallurgy, Fire and volcanoes....
    • the famous craftsman
    • the famous lame god


  • Hermes
    Hermes

    Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
    • messenger
    • son of Zeus
    • giant-killer
    • the strong one


  • Iris
    Iris (mythology)

    In Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. As the sun unites Earth and heaven, Iris links the gods to humanity....
    • wind-footed


  • Kronos
    Cronus

    Cronus or Kronos, , was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titan , divine descendants of Gaia , the earth, and Uranus , the sky....
    • devious-devising
    • all-powerful


  • Menelaus
    Menelaus

    Menelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria....
    • red-haired king
    • master of the war-cry
    • fair-haired
    • son of Atreus
    • war-like
    • spear-famed


  • Naubolos
    • great-hearted


  • Nestor
    Nestor (mythology)

    In Greek mythology, Nestor of Ger?nia was the son of Neleus and Chloris, and the King of Pylos. He became king after Heracles killed Neleus and all of Nestor's brothers and sisters....
    • godlike
    • splendid
    • Gerenian charioteer
    • son of Neleus
    • Pylos born king
    • sweet spoken
    • high-hearted


  • Odysseus
    Odysseus

    Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
    • brilliant
    • sacker of cities
    • god-like
    • resourceful ("man of many resources")
    • noble
    • tried
    • wise
    • loved of Zeus
    • great glory of the Aecheans
    • great-hearted
    • master mariner
    • mastermind of war
    • hotheaded
    • versatile


  • Onchestos
    • the sacred


  • Pandaros
    • Lykaeon's splendid son
    • the strong and blameless son of Lykaon
    • godlike


  • Penelope
    Penelope

    In Homer's Odyssey, Penel?pe is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps Suitors of Penelope at bay in his long absence and so is eventually rejoined with him....
    • Circumspect


  • Patroclus
    Patroclus

    In Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , son of Menoetius , was Achilles? beloved comrade and, according to some , his lover....
    • son of Menoitius
    • horseman


  • Paris
    Paris (mythology)

    Paris , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek mythology. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War....
    • Alexandros
    • godlike
    • son of Priam


  • Polites
    Polites

    In Greek mythology, Polites referred to two different people, both of whom feature as minor characters in the epics by Homer.*Polites was a member Odysseus's crew....
    • son of Priam


  • Polyphemos
    • godlike


  • Sarpedon
    Sarpedon

    In Greek mythology, Sarpedon referred to at least three different people....
    • leader of the Lycians


  • Sea
    SEA

    See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
    • wine-dark
    • grey


  • Thetis
    Thetis

    Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus ....
    • lovely-haired
    • silver-footed


  • Thersites
    Thersites

    In Greek mythology, Thersites , son of Agrius, was a rank-and-file soldier of the Greek army during the Trojan War.Homer described him in detail in the Iliad, Book II, even though he plays only a minor role in the story....
    • of the endless speech


  • Trojans
    Troy

    Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
    • breakers of horses


  • Tydeus
    Tydeus

    In Greek mythology, Tydeus was the father of Diomedes and husband of Deipyle. He was a son of Oeneus and either Periboea, Oeneus's second wife, or Gorge, Oeneus's daughter....
    • driver of horses
    • high-hearted


  • Zeus
    Zeus

    Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
    • mighty
    • son of Kronos
    • wide-seeing
    • the cloud-gatherer
    • father of gods and men
    • master of the bright lightning

Source

V.J. Howe, "Epithets in Homer." Available online at http://www.angelfire.com/art/archictecture/articles/008.htm. (Retrieved October 16, 2007.)